I think you may be right! I need a vacation! Taking a break from something that is so frustrating and stressfull is probably the best thing to do. I'm just having a hard time walking away from something that I love to do! I love working with the children. It just doesn't seem right that a principal, her staff and a few of her bullies should have the power to boot others out! I really want to put a stop to that! I also like the advice to contact the Superintendent and to see if our school district has some policies on how its staff and principals are allowed to handle such matters. My guess is that they dont have any, in which case maybe I could suggest that they could look into such a policy! My luck they would ask the for the input of the Principal and we would be back to square one! She is still in control of the PTO! Im not sure what I will do next but I am sure thankful to all of you that respond with all your ideas! As a new member it was really nice to get so much feedback on my first posting. Thank you all so much! Now maybe I will be able to get some sleep!
Our Supt of the Dept of Ed just sent down a directive to all Principals that they can no longer sign checks or control funds from outside organizations of the school (which includes PTO's and PTA's). I'm amazed this came about, need to find out more on why this happened which I fully agree with.
Now that we have a new Principal, we still have the same PTO president from last year and she still is going on her power trip, ignoring the by laws (we are a 501C3) and doing things how she pleases. It seems I'm the only one stepping up and pointing out all the violations. I do have some parents who concur with my views and will be speaking up at the next meeting, but I'm getting flashbacks from last years battle. I guess I just need to keep reminding myself that I'm doing this for the kids. :cool:
stalmaster,
This may be just the year you needed to take a break, focus on helping your child's teacher, look in your community for volunteer opprtunities. I'm not suggesting you quit but take a deserved break. Let them do what they think is supposed to be done, let the staff make mistakes and complain to the Principal about their "new" workload!
You could go to the school's board but if she is a board member....exactly. Now, going to the district and just talk to someone there about your concerns (not issues, keep it light and more like a Q&A). School districts (well most) have guidelines and need to know when things go bad. Maybe talking to your state PTA rep may help gain some ideas how to rebuild when the reality of running a PTO becomes clear to the new board and they want nothing more to do with it.
I love the song "Anything You Can Do I Can DO Better" it's just hard when people live by those words.
Please, I have walked away before, for an entire year (that's all I could last LOL) but it's refreshing, hard but refreshing......
Yes, this is for the kids, but tell that to your Principal as she is singing "I can do anything better than you......"
I guess I'm not the only one dealing with a Principal who is on a power trip and does not want anyone telling her what to do. Thank God she is now gone, but she left behind parents, teachers and staff who supported her dictatorship at our school.
It has a been a very bitter battle, and I can sympathize with all of you. I too have been labeled a "problem" parent because I wanted things done properly, fairly and for the children. Not to make teachers, staff and the principals lives easier or to make them look good to the Dept of Education. A few other dedicated parents and myself volunteered hundreds of hours and hundreds of dollars out of our pockets to try and help improve things at our elementary school. But trying to change status quo of very loose procedures (if there were any) to a more structured one was like pulling out their teeth. You mention changes or procedures they (the in clique) would get all in a snit. I guess all the "favorites" would lose something if things were done fairly and open.
Well we have a new principal who says promising things, but only time will tell if he will live up to it. I could write a couple of pages of all the things that happened last year, so I'll end here. Great website, I just found it this week and it's good to know that I'm not the only one going through the bs.
You have asked the question of the day! What sort of role does our Pto play? Ii depends on who you ask! Our group does not seem to be on the same page! Parents want one thing and staff and principal what another! Most parents want to sponser fun events that our school can't afford to! Staff want the money to buy whatever they see fit for their individual classrooms and feel that they should not have to account to the parents on waht the items are! (they are not made to show receipts and the items become the property of the teacher not the school. Our treasurer last year had control of the checkbook, but the principal did not like this and is now requiring that two signers be on the account one being of course her! Yes we had by-laws I made sure they were followed I also made sure that members were informed and that issues were voted on.(Something the principal did not like because it could not go her way sometimes! This year (over the summer) this new Pto board has decided make plans , have no discussion or vote and TELL members what they will or will not be doing! As for the principal not feeling that the board last year did not meet the needs of the school, I have no idea.No elections were held for Pto seats because none of the parents wanted to step forward because of the constant pressure and stress at the public meetings!
I agree with you when you say the bottom line is the children! Thats why I got involved in the first place! However, I also believe strongly that parents have a right to be in their childs PUBLIC SCHOOL! Why have a parent/teacher group in the building and Not have the parents involved except for writting the checks to Pto!
Parents are willing to talk in person but know one wants to get involved publicly. Most have seen what has happen to me! Heres where I think I can step in and make a difference. I need to get the parents to feel like they can get involved with out having to go through so many battles. They need to feel welcome, they need to feel that their time,money and opinion matter. Our principal likes the small turnm out of parents because she does not want the input. She wants to rule hard over the few not the many! They have without a vote, changed the pto meetings from meeting once a month in the evenings, to four times a year right after school! What a better way to ensure that you cant get any working parents and will limit how many can come right after school because of outside activities. However this is more convenient for the staff! they dont have to come back later.
Disolve may be the best answer. Although this was tried last year and the parents and staff voted to keep it a K-12 Pto.(thats how small we are!)
Why I don't know.
It is however comforting to know that their are some Pto groups, like yours that are able to have parents and staff workings together for the sake of the children. Im just not fortunate enough to have a community that thinks out of the box and puts the children first!
Remember who this is for. The kids. What sort of role did the PTO have? Who had the checkbook? Do you have bylaws? Did the principal feel like the past PTO was not filling the needs of the school? You said you were president last year, were elections held for a new one and no one stepped forward?
Now if you never had control last year because there were no bylaws in place allowing the principal to take over and the checking account was always in the school's name or whatever, here's what you need to consider. The kids. Will the school and staff do a good job with this, maybe? They still need to do fundraisers and figure out how to spend the money. If they really want the extra work. With staff having control will parents still volunteer, maybe? Still contribute to fundraiser, maybe? Be happy with how the money's spent, maybe? If they do your kids are still getting a great experience at school.
However, if these things start to drop off because families feel they don't have any say, then there is your time to step in and get the support of other parents. As PTOs if we went around asking for money and volunteers all the time and never had anything to show for it, they'd boot us out too. This may pass, because the staff won't want the extra work, we are out to help them, help the kids.
If the other parents don't care who runs the show and everything still gets accomplished, it's all good. If you need to help then help, be there for your child.
If things fall apart for the staff and parents want to step up again. Make sure you put some good controls in place. 2/3 of our PTO have to vote to disolve our entity. We wouldn't be able to pass the check book over to anybody that wasn't properly voted into office.
We support many requests from the staff and have a very good relationship with them.
